help to areas that are going to have those disasters. >> absolutely. handles, applications on the installation, the heating, it is instant on now at as opposed to the -- all of that technology has permeated through to a single structure. those are very conservative approaches. >> but me ask the last question if i may. since we have had congressional representation today. we have had stayed representation. we have had a past mayor. we have had federal agency representation and experienced. let me ask each of you from the

private sector, albeit a nonprofit, what is it that you expect from the state and municipal leadership with respect to recovery and resilience types of issues? what is it you are immediately prepared to offer and want municipal state and local government to come to you for? >> i will take it. for us and mr. roy said, the disaster is local. for our buildings local code. we need clarification on what is local code is. i will give you a specific example. usually the municipalities have a limit on the height of the buildings. with the house they look at the top of the roof, the mean height of the roof.

they say a maximum 32 feet. the mat comes and says now he will go 8 feet higher because the previous storm was fine, but i want you to be higher. then it is 39 feet. your over the code. who wins? the owner does not. we do not know what to build. that needs to be finalized before they know what to build. on the municipal side, to resolve these issues, that is where most of our businesses have been stopped. other than the insurance companies and through the mat trickling down of the funds that they need, they may have the money, they do not have the code to build four. two items of a result. the money funding down and zoning building codes. >> in new orleans after katrina,

there were a lot of issues about building codes, in particular with resistance. part was developing a national building code for modular houses coming in. it still left it unclear on some of the neighborhoods. your career -- you are correct that is a hold up. >> i think from our perspective, there is a lot of uncertainty that is in the marketplace today. it is really because of what you said. the rules need to be clarified. we need to understand what is being bought. until we understand what it is, we will never be able to buy those items are put in place. with regards to some of the emergency preparedness or some of the infrastructure in the economy, spoke with a bunch of utility organizations as well as above the gas organizations -- the gas companies out there. they went to have some

contracts and place that say they can get utility trucks, let's say from texas, to hookup to a hotel room to keep utility workers. so they can come back and showered during the course of the evening or talk to their family when they are not working 16 hour days. we're kid may actually do from the federal guidelines? it is from having those rules in place but also having the money. having that money trickled down to the local economies. that is where the challenges are. >> i am going to answer two questions. what do we expect, and what do we hope for? what do i expect? i do not really know what to expect. from our friends across the street. i do not really know what to expect. i would hope that they would be leadership that is creative and

thinking. it is creative to look to programs like modular housing, energy efficiency, procurement initiatives, etc. it certainly will not avoid this kind of disasters, but improved response and mitigate their effect in the future. >> for me the most frustrating thing has been a lack of transparency. especially when it comes to businesses. we have found a message that has been put out there at this local events and the media is just disconnected from reality. that is incredibly frustrating for us as we try to fit into this ecosystem. we're not trying to duplicate something that does not exist. for the business owner, they might only try one avenue and they give up.

this said, the heck with us. they're not going to do what they said there are going to do. why should i was my time with us? there was an article in bloomberg business week in december that i was interviewed for a when they were talking about, why are more businesses not taking disaster loans? at the time it was written, they had made a grand total of 70 loans to businesses in new jersey. we had a 23. they have as many as 100 times as many resources as we do, what are the only making three times as many loans? all of this money coming in from the private side, what is really happening with the resources? where can i get updated statistics to see where they are performing? if what they are saying is really true as far as who will qualify, they should be able to

show more activity than that. that is disappointing. on the other side where we can offer, we put in a proposal to the new jersey community affairs for $1 billion in bank capital for the long term recovery efforts. we are getting more requests so we can meet this demand. i got a chance to speak with sean donovan, the chief of staff, when he came to trenton to speak at a meeting at was that. he said, we have met with the people of new jersey and they do not have a clue how it will spend the money. we are not going to give any money to the state until they really have a clear plan on how they will use it. we kind of feel like we have a shovel ready planned to get this into the hands of those who need it.

he will build on a track record we already have a. there is this place we are dependent on the we have no control over. how do we overcome these types of challenges to make sure these funds are appropriated and get spend driveway? >> thank you. i want to thank the panel for a good wrapup discussion. i want to thank our speakers and sponsors for their participation. i want to thank bill for another fine event. and they want to thank all of you. i would be remiss if i did not point out that this just arts the discussion. it is the networking, the contacts, the exchange we had today that needs to be carried forward. you should continue that discussion one amongst yourselves, a mobster colleagues, a monster elected official so we can -- amongst your colleagues and amongst your

elected officials. the speakers and the sponsors are invited to a post the event a luncheon on the second floor. i want to give all of the speakers and sponsors a round of applause. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> next, remarks from paul ryan and scott walker. live at 7:00, your calls and comments on "the washington journal." >> one of the key themes for any exhibition on the civil war of the twin issues of abolition and emancipation. we are fortunate they came of age when they did because between the two of them, they make issues around emancipation and abolition, issues around human rights and the american

freedom on a general not raise specific level. i will go through every piece of information that johnson puts it to this picture. i will summarize by saying if you pay attention to the top half as well as the bottom half, there is a letter going from the bedroom window up to the big wink and as if there is a way in and out without being seen. there is a rooster up here. roosters have a habit of finding a purge and calling to the hen to spend the night with them. the slave is on top of the slave -- the head is on top of the slave quarters. if you look at the white girl in the backyard with a black girl checking if the coast is clear, some say, she is coming to hear

the music. she is the mistress or the master's daughter. she is not here to hear the music. nobody is paying attention to her. is she a product of one of those liaisons? >> the civil war and its influence on american artists, today on c-span 3. >> among the speakers, wisconsin congressman and vice- presidential nominee paul ryan and scott walker. this is about 25 minutes. >> all right, ladies and gentlemen. we are about to hear from our next speaker, congressman paul ryan. [applause]

when he was picked as mitt romney's running mate, he became a subject of fascination, even to his workout routine. for those of you who are not fit enough to have a workout routine and it sounds like some advanced piece of weapon military are you happen not to work out before breakfast, the p90 x is is that you confuse your muscle by trying constantly new and different workouts everyday. we have evidence that paul ryan is very loyal to this workout routine. his most innovative workout has been caught on tape and broadcasted broadly. it includes running through the woods and pushing ladies in

wheelchairs off a cliff. this is a tremendous workout. as you are pushing the wheelchair, it works out the legs really good on the running, the cargo is there. depending on your technique of pushing the wheelchairs off the cliff, you get the arms there as well. [laughter] i hope i'm not betraying any confidences when i say that the chapter of republican policies has been authored by paul ryan over the last few years began on a hunt. i might be messing this up, but as far as i understand, both hunting include sitting alone in a damn tree all day long and waiting for a deer or an elderly person to wander by.

then you shoot it to kill. my understanding is that paul was up alone in a tree when they. i assume he was bored out of his mind. it occurred to him that if he was going to be in washington to continue to be congressman, he had to make it count. he came back here. he wrote his roadmap. there about one or two other people who dared to co- sponsored. it is a sign they were not very good with politics. within the next few years, paul reoriented the entire republican party around a version of this plan. it was an extraordinary act of intellectual and political leadership. paul is an exemplary political leader. he is unflappable. his goal is not to bent or insult -- not to vent or

insult, but to persuade. he went through this entire campaign last year under tremendous pressure and never showed one moment of ill -- we saw his political character on display in national debate or he faced a vice president who was determined to behave like a hyena that was high. [applause] i think the late great crocodile wrestler would have hesitated to sit down at the table for an hour and a half with the vice president. at the end, we knew which of those men had a better political character and which one was a better advocate for a cause. [applause]

i'm absolutely certain that whatever is the solution and the answer to that writes political predicament over the next couple of years, paul ryan be part of that answer and solution. he is a great friend. ladies and gentlemen, welcome paul ryan. [cheers and applause] >> that was pretty good. i will take you both hunting. that was great. thank you. appreciated. i can say about that introduction, that was the most recent introduction i have ever received. thank you. i appreciate it. i'm happy to see so many friends in the audience. i see a lot of familiar faces. i'm honored to see so many distinguished guests.

you could say this is the greatest collection of conservative families ever gathered in one room. with the possible exception of when -- dined alone. [laughter] hail to the national review. i started reading national review when my professor gave me a copy. when i came to washington, they were writers and editors. i was a young staffer on capitol hill. over time, i recognized the bylines. i became enthralled with the work. i want to say to the national review, thank you for 20 years

of good advice. thank you for all that you do. [applause] today you are asking for my advice. as you recall, there was an election last year. it did not go our way. like you, i understand full well that elections have consequences. the vice president's house is a few houses away from here. i was looking forward to taking on the big challenges. there are two ways to define defeat -- you can deny it or you can choose to learn from it. i choose to learn from it. the way that i see it, our defeat is all the more reason to lay out our vision and lay out specifics with a broader appeal. it will be difficult without a

partner in the white house. i believe that we can do this. we have to deal with the fact that president obama has a second term. that is the topic of my talk today. a second term will present a lot of new challenges for our side. it will also present a lot of opportunities. we will need something that we occasionally overlook. i would like to explain what that is and why we need it. first, a context. in the president's first term, we argued against big government in theory. obamacare is no longer a 2008 bill. now it is for 13,000 pages. this will restrict our ability

in life-saving medical devices. that is just healthcare. now the president is implementing his agenda. we will see that the benefits are far less than advertised. the costs of this agenda are huge. we spend when chilean dollars more than we take in each year. we spend $1 trillion more than we taken each year. we cannot keep that up. that is a moment where our economy stalls. we will have to convince the country to change course. we had to reform entitlements. we had to revisit the healthcare law. clearly president obama does not want us to get that chance.

he want his last two years to look just like his first two years of his presidency. it was to perpetuate progressive government for at least a generation. why? he thinks it is the right and to do. to do that, he needs to delegitimize the republican party and house republicans, in particular. he will try to divide us. he will try to get us to fight with each other, question each other so we do not challenge him. if we play into his hands, we will betray the voters who supported us in the country that we serve. we cannot let that happen. we need to be smart. we need to show prudence. what do i mean when i say that? prudence is good judgment in the art of governing. abraham lincoln called it one of the cardinal virtues. it is our greatest obligation as public servants.

we have to find the good in every situation and choose the best means to achieve it. the prudent man is like a captain at sea, he does curse of the wind him he uses it to reach his destination. i'm not saying that we should be excessively cautious. what i'm saying is that when we see an opening, however small, we should take it. if you want to promote conservatism, we will need to use every tool at our disposal. sometimes we will have to reject the president's proposals. that time might come more than once. just the other day, he said that republicans are suspicious of social security. he said that we had suspicions of feeding hungry children.

but there are suspicions of caring for the elderly. look, it is the same trick every time. find a strawman and avoid honest debate. the way that he tells it, it is the president and only the president that is trying to fix our bridges and feed our children and care for our seniors and clean our water. he must be exhausted. i know we are. [laughter] but we cannot get rattled. we will not. we have to stay united. we have to show that if given the chance, we can govern. we have better ideas. the fact is, we are not in the wilderness. republicans controlled the house and most of the statehouses.

we have to oppose the president on some fronts and we have to engage them on others. we cannot let our country have a debt crisis. if they will not help ask our entitlements, and we have to buy time. we have to keep the bond market at the bait for the safety of our people. that means we will face tough moments. like the fiscal cliff. i know we did not see eye to eye. on january 1, a trillion dollar tax hike took effect. the senate voted to prevent tax hikes and 98% of americans. and made the lower tax hikes permanent. president obama got less revenue than the speaker offered in the first place. in short, there is no way we were going to get a better deal for the american tax payer.

we wanted to keep tax hikes low for everybody. we wanted to cut spending. otherwise every single taxpayer would have paid higher taxes and our economy would have gotten into a nosedive. the decision was simple. if you think a bill needs to pass, you vote for it. many of my colleagues voted the other way. i respect their decision. prudence demands mutual understanding, especially among friends. my colleagues and i saw the same thing. we wanted a smaller, smarter government. we simply differed on the means. that is the difficulty of governing. it should not be a cause for division. our tactics will differ from issue to issue, but our strategy remains the same. in the next four years, opportunity will not come

easily. we have to pay our bills and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow. to do that, we need to cut spending and budget responsibly. our job as we see it is to help the country prevent a debt crisis. every family sets a budget. every business budgets. the federal government should do the same thing. it is the law that we passed a budget. the house has done its job. the senate does not pass a budget in nearly four years. that is unacceptable. that has to change. [applause] the house will not consider another vote to increase the debt ceiling unless the senate passes a budget. we are going to point the

country in the right direction. we are going to cut spending. [applause] it will be times when conservatives disagree on the way forward. we have never marched in lockstep. that is not what we do. and healthy debate is a good and needed thing. we can do that in private without doing it in public. we need to give an honest account of our actions and the reasons for that. we should challenge the left and not each other. our founders were men of prudence. take james madison. nowadays they call him the founder of the constitution. he lost some key governments -- arguments. he fought for plan to give the states the same number of states in the government. he wanted to give congress even

more power. he wanted it to be able to veto state laws. madison argued vigorously for his side. when it came time to ratify the constitution, there was no greater advocate and james madison. he helped write editorials and called it the federalist papers. he led the charge for approval at the virginia state convention. he paid a price for his support. when he ran for congress -- this is the 18th century of getting primary. he decided for all of his imperfections, he would support that restitution because it would save the union. today we are the living proof of his prudence.

i say that we have two roles in the president's second term. one, mitigate bad policy. two, advanced good policy when we can. we have got to stop the growth of administrative state. they have become a fourth branch of government in recent years. they combine all three options of government in one sweep. the people suffer the consequences. this is not government by the consent of the governed. we must keep them in line. that is what oversight does. [applause] on the second point, we have to offer an alternative. we cannot leave the democrats to their own devices.

early this month, tax hikes have gone up further. the democrats are calling for higher taxes again. we are not raising taxes. but we have no desire to be a welfare state. we have to focus on the real problems and that is spending. we cannot just respond to the democrats proposals. we have to offer our own, and that is exactly what we are going to do. i will advance reforms to strengthen medicare and medicaid. there'll be a tax reform effort. we will propose a budget that will balance and pay down the debt. guess what? the democrats are unlikely to accept our proposals. they refused to consider the real reform that was needed to get the country back on track.

when reform is possible, we will be ready. that is our obligation. i have got to tell you, washington is broken. the frontlines of reform are in the states. that is where republicans republicans will see the greatest success. thanks to governors like bobby jindal. these governors deserve our thanks. they are the models for all of us. they work across the aisle when possible and expand opportunity through education reform. i cannot wait to see what they can accomplish this year. when you take stock of all of this, it might seem you right now, but it will grow.

as the president implement his agenda, it won't be pretty. at that moment, we will be ready. we will offer an alternative vision. we will explain how our vision differs and how it rests on vibrant communities and increases upward mobility. we will show how we can govern better by governing closer to the people and strengthening families and their livelihoods. we will make it clear that we have better ideas to combat poverty. our policies will lift everyone in this country. we will translate that vision into a governing agenda. that is how you offer enduring solutions. we will say to the country, here

is our plan for the country, for the budget, for healthcare, for energy, defense. when we do that, we put our plans out against the president's results, i think we will compare quite favorably. we will win back the trust of the american people and put our plan into action. that is what you do in moments like this. pick yourself up, dust yourself off, fight for what you believe in, and get back to work. the challenge is continued to mount. it is easy to get discouraged by it all. the election lost. the difficulties of the changes are coming. but it is a mortal sin to despair. i'm not ready to give up. i know you're not either. you would not be here if you wear. that is why i'm asking you for your help. every conservative needs to be

involved. after the election, i needed to take a little bit of time. i needed to get into the woods. that is where i recharge. i took my daughter with me. she got her first deer. [applause] that is what we do where we come from. i know other people cannot relate to that. but i realized sitting next to her, talking to her in the woods and how quickly she was growing up, it got me thinking when i am old and grandkids ask me about that moment, i do not want to tell them how america lost its way. i do not want to say, don't blame me. i did not vote for any of it here instead, i want to tell them how america got back on track. i want to say, our country was worth the fight. with your help, and with a touch

of riddance, we will win it. thank you. [applause] thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. thank you. great to be here. great to be here. the real truth is that my mother was the church mouse -- when he was giving introduction, i was thinking back to that point

almost two years ago in march of 2011. i remember i was holding a press conference and i would talk to the media in my state and others joined in from around the country every day around 5 p.m. the idea that if i held a 5 p.m. news conference, i would have it live on tv so there would be no filter. i could talk directly to the voters, my constituents. one day protesters figure this out. you would hear those horns that would go off and other things out there. they would play it extra loud. one reporter said, don't you hear all of that noise? what is your response to that? we had anywhere from 10,000 or 15,000, as many as 100,000 at one point the people protesting. i said, you know, that is what is great about america. people can protest the government from many levels. they have every right to be heard.

whether it is 15 or 100,000, they have every right to be heard. i live in a state where the majority voted for me. i said, never will i let the voices in the capital drawn out the voices of the majority of people in my state who elected me to do what i do. [applause] as afternoon, i went to spend a few moments talking about three different things. if you do not remember the details, you can walk away with these the words -- optimism, relevant, courage. optimism, relevance, and courage. optimism and the city and at this time might seem like an awkward word.

a lot of people focusing on national politics think about congress and the presidency. you might feel a little less optimistic. you should be optimistic if you look around the country. there are now 30 states in america that have republican governors. [applause] in nearly half of the states in america, they have republican majorities in state legislation. in wisconsin, we not only added a seat in our lower house, we regained the majority and the wisconsin state senate. we look to do big and bold things like tax cuts and entitlement reforms and school reforms. we can do that because we have republican majorities in both chambers, as well as republican governors. if you look at the future of the conservative movement, i firmly

believe just as it was in the past when you think back to one of my great assessors with the welfare reform, when you think back to others who led the charge over the years, the conservative movement came from the states and not the other way around. it was important to remember that the states formed the country and not the other way around. it is the states that will lead us forward. i'm optimistic about the future. what have we learned from the fall elections? we have to be more optimistic. we need a viable alternative to give to the voters. it needs to appeal to the voters. i believe in being realistic about the challenges we face, but optimistic in the solutions. that is incredibly important.

who are the people we were drawn to? people who are optimistic on how we would get out of these issues. they said, things are tough, but i believe in the people of my state, my country. i have a vision and you have a vision and we can move forward. think about the context. we talk about a lot of differences between conservatives and liberals. i believe that liberals fundamentally put their faith in government so much so that they measure success in government by how many people are dependent upon the government. sadly, more often than not by how many people are dependent upon unemployment.

one person said to me, what is your measure of success? the people who used to work here, the previous governor measured success by how many people are agency was able to sign up for unemployment benefits. they thought that was good to put federal money in. what is your definition of success? i said it is absolutely the opposite. i believe i definition of success, our definition of success of the vast majority in this country believe the definition of success at any level is the opposite. it is how many people are not dependent upon the government. [applause] not because we kicked those people to the street.

it is the opposite. we understand the true way to control someone a's destiny is to empower them to have a job in the private sector where they can have more freedom and prosperity. only people self-determination can do that. we should be the movement that says we are about you. we about putting power back into the hands of the hard working taxpayers. the reason why we were elected in june of this past year by more votes than in the november 2010 election was because we say, which do you want? elected officials who put their power and to the hands of a handful of big government interests? or do you want leaders elected to put the power back into the

hands of the hard-working taxpayers? that is the choice. the government or the taxpayers? as conservatives, we believe in the taxpayers, the people of our state. we need to optimistically layout that case. we also need to talk about being relevant. after the november elections, a lot of pundits were saying that maybe the republican party needs to back away from their principals. maybe they need to change things. our principles are not the problem. when i go around and say that i believe 30 of us governors have done a good job in the states are relevant to the dreams of the vast majority of people in our states. it means not just being relevant, that talking about it in a way that is relevant. lots of people i talk to to not

talk in terms of the fiscal cliff or the debt ceiling. they do not talk about monthly job reports. they talk about things like how is my kid's school performing? will make it have a job when they get out of college? can i pay my bills? can i pay the mortgage? you hear all too often that political leaders talk about things in terms that are not really relevant. the outcome might be relevant, but not relevant to the people in our states. we need to be more relevant. when i first ran for governor, i used to tell a story about something i started doing about 25 years ago. when i started working, i would pack a lunch every day. it is a lunch i still most days. chisam which nests cheese sandwich on wheat bread with a

little bit of mayo -- cheese sam went on wheat bread with a little bit of mayo. i bring the same lunch. i get the same thing every day and i'm perfectly happy with that. i pack it in a little brown bag lunch. i eat it in the car or at the capitol or anywhere else. when i ran for governor, i said we need a little bit of brown bag common sense in our government. as it first, my grandmother raised my mother in a farmhouse where my mother did not have indoor plumbing don't think they bought on credit was a mortgage on their farm.

-- berman mother did not have indoor plumbing. they bought it on credit. in government, we should not spend money that we do not have. it is not about that ceilings a deficit or anything else, but the simple concept that your parents taught you that you do not spend money you do not have. when you talk to people about it, they do it all the time when they balance the check books. somehow it is a foreign concept in government. we talk about limited government. we talk about frugality in government. we should articulate whether this is relevant to where people are here in -- or people are. you can talk to most people across the country. most people would tell you other than public safety and public health, there is not a whole lot that is obvious, yet it creeps into all parts of our life. it asked people whether they

identified themselves as republican or not, most people would say i do not want the government meddling in my life. there are a handful of things that relate to poor public health and public safety issues that we cannot do on our own, but for most things we can do on our own, we prefer that we do it and not the government. finally, something that i think we need to be talking about is because some left people do not get it and even some of our own republican friends, that is that people create jobs and not the government. that is one of the misnomers out there. [applause]

somehow when candidates run for election -- we do not create jobs in government. i'm proud of the reforms we put in place to balance our budget. we took a budget deficits and we now have half $1 million surplus. [applause] after 12 years, we're coming up on our third year where property taxes will go down. our overall tax burden is down in the state. that is not done because i created more jobs, but because we created an environment that was more advantageous for small business leaders to make investments that would lead to

more jobs. that is the third truth. people create jobs. most people understand that. they get that the best way to create opportunity is to empower people, particularly small business to be in a position to do that. those are the things that are relevant. the same pundits who said that we need to change our principles talked about certain voting blocs and segments out there -- young voters, women voters, kids coming out of college, ethnic minorities, immigrants. i think the message as long it is in terms of where those voters are at, i think that is one mistake many republicans did. we stayed in a place as we were too comfortable. if you are an immigrant like my family who came from other countries generations ago, our weather were like my brothers

in-laws who came to generations ago from mexico, in each case, we can for some of the same reasons. they wanted to come for a better life. we wanted an education. they wanted to work hard and live the american dream. that is a theme that does not come they were government, but more freedom and opportunity. we are the party that can do that. we need to articulate that message strongly in every part of america. [applause] finally, in addition to the optimistic, realistic view about our issues, the last thing i want to talk about is courage.

but i was talking about what we were doing and why would doing it, i talked about what was leading up to the recall being one of those defining moments of american history. it was not because of me. the recall election had very little to do with me. it had to do with that simple impression of who is in charge? are we going to allow the big government special interest to drive things in the state and local level? or will we allow the hard- working taxpayers to be in charge? the interesting part about that was also one that would define what happened in other battles. not just at the state level, but all across the country. if we had lost the recall election, we would have set back politics at least a decade, if not a generation.

i pointed out that my good friend and neighbor for many years, paul ryan, said on june 5, our state was on the ballot. the those who helped us and made calls or send donations, thank you. it was that support that made the difference. i like to kid that other governors i see that i'm the only one who has ever been elected twice in the same term. that is kind of fun to joke about that. [laughter] i'm proud to still be the governor of wisconsin not because of the title, although it is the best job in america, i'm proud to be the governor

because it sends a compelling message not just to leaders in washington, not just to leaders across america, but any elected official be it a mayor or another that you can stick your neck out. voters will reward you for that. voters in times of crisis want leadership. we need to send a compelling message that it is okay to stand up and lead. if you do, you do without hesitation. ultimately, the voters will respond to that because of voters in this country are craving leadership. [applause] let me end with this last thought. and you'll hear from senator cruz who is a great inspiration to me. the reason i knew that we would

ultimately prevail was not because of campaign support or anything else. all the support we got was tremendously important, the grassroots, but only in donations, we raised $37 million, which sounds like a lot of money, but 70% of that was from people who give us $50 or less. it was a natural grassroots movement. the reason i knew was something that went back all the way back to september of 2011 -- right after 9/11 two years ago, we had the honor of going to philadelphia for a meeting with other governors. you probably all are history buffs. i wanted to see philadelphia. growing up as a son of a

minister, me and my brother and i, in our days, you would consider us poor. we did not know that. pastors did not get paid a lot. the furthest distance we would go on vacation was about as far as our station wagon could drive for about a day and then turn around and come back. we never got out to washington or philadelphia. in september 2011 when i was at this gathering of governors, i really was excited about being in philadelphia. i got up early to go over to independence hall, to see the outside of it, to see the liberty bell. i was blown away. growing up as somebody who loved history, particularly loved the founders of our country, i often thought of them as bigger than life, as superheroes. i thought about what they did -- i thought i would be blown away, and i came to independence hall in philadelphia, and i looked at this stage, and i was

soaking it in, and i looked at antoinette, and if you have been there, you would know that it was where they sat, it was about the size of the stage. the desk out in front, the chairs -- i thought to myself, wow, these were ordinary people, ordinary people who did something quite extraordinary. when you think about it, some 225 years after the constitution was put together right in that place, you realize that these were ordinary people who did something quite extraordinary. as we all know who love history, these were people who did not just risk their political careers. in fact, they did not just risk their business ventures. these were people who literally risked their lives for the freedoms we hold dear today. ben franklin had it right. he said, if we do not hang together, surely we will hang separately.

these are people who risked their lives for the freedoms we hold dear. the reason i knew we would win our recall election, despite the majority in the senate, the presidential election, the reason i am optimistic about the future of this great republic is because of our history, who we are. what has made america great, what has made us arguably the greatest nation in the history of the world has been that in moments of crisis, be it economic or fiscal, military or spiritual, what has made america amazing is that for out of those moments there have been men and women of courage that have been willing to stand up and think more about the future of their children and their grandchildren than they thought about their own futures. this yet again is one of those times in american history. it does not take an election to move forward in that regard. it takes a movement and a commitment to the principles of not just our founders of every generation since and those who have come to believe in the

great american ideal, who believe that freedom and prosperity are the focus. if we continue to be optimistic and relevant about that, i have no doubt that this country and each of our states will be better off for generations to come. thank you for your commitment to that. thank you for being here today. may god bless each and every one of you. [applause] >> life, your calls and comments on the "washington journal." then it newsmakers with senator inhofe. >> was the best training for a policeman?

>> understand what it is all about. i will say that. you learn how to use intelligent information. you learn how to leverage relationships in the community. people in the community trust you. they will tell you when things are happening that are not yet crimes. and they will tell you all about how to go about doing that. i learned from most of my career for mao's relationships. -- from those relationships. >> more with cathy lanier tonight at 8:00. >> today washington journal focuses on the governors and policy issues they face this year. we will talk with reporters from florida and illinois abt